


The real cryptid was the friends they made along the way

by Xyriath



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cryptozoology, Ghost Hunters, Halloween, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-23 21:57:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12517448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xyriath/pseuds/Xyriath
Summary: Shiro and Keith head to Loch Ness to film for their ghost hunting YouTube channel, but what they find isn't... exactly what they were hoping for.





	The real cryptid was the friends they made along the way

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HedonistInk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HedonistInk/gifts).



“I can’t believe we haven’t found anything,” Keith groaned.

Shiro, trying not to grin, turned the camera onto Keith’s slumped, dejected form, sitting on charred floorboards.

“We’ve still got a while.”

Keith looked up tiredly, but his expression quickly shifted to one of distinct sourness.  “Hey, turn that off!”

“No way,” Shiro laughed, dancing away from Keith’s halfhearted kick.  “We’re famous for our _authenticity_ , remember?  I’ve gotta record it _all_.”

“Not when we have jack _shit_ ,” Keith muttered, pushing himself to his feet.  Shiro began to step back in anticipation of Keith’s advance.  “Can you _imagine_ the flack we’ll get for this if we air it?  Almost as much as we’ll get if we don’t!”  He lunged forward, and Shiro dodged with a laugh.  Keith probably wasn’t really trying to get to the camera, just making an attempt at entertainment in the midst of a very dull evening.

“Hey, the night isn’t over yet.  There’s plenty of time.”  Shiro finally stopped running and, as expected, Keith just gently swatted at Shiro’s side when he caught up.  “It’s _Halloween._ ”

“Yeah, Halloween, in Scotland, in the goddamn _Boleskine House,_ next to a graveyard, next to _Loch Ness_ , and we’ve run into absolutely nothing!”  Keith huffed, leaning into Shiro, and Shiro just put an arm around him.  “I just… thought there would be something, you know?  That it wouldn’t feel like…”

Shiro pulled him in tighter.  “Hey.”  He turned to nose at Keith’s temple.  “I don’t care _what_ we find.  No way this was a wasted trip.”

“But… you wanted to find stuff, right?  You wanted this to be about…”

Shiro _had_ blown an exorbitant amount of money on the anniversary/birthday present, true.  But it hadn’t _just_ been for the channel.

“Listen,” he murmured.  “I don’t care if we don’t find anything.  I wouldn’t care if we sat inside our hotel room all week and watched bad monster movies.  All I need to be happy is to spend time with you.”

“You’re such a sap,” Keith groaned, turning to hide his face in Shiro’s collarbone.

“I know.”  With a happy hum, he lifted the camera, turning it around.  “Smile!”

The video preview, flipped to be visible as they stared into the lens, showed a grinning Shiro and a sulky Keith trying reluctantly not to smile.  Unable to resist, Shiro turned, planting a deep kiss on Keith’s mouth.

They _probably_ should reconsider getting so distracted on camera, especially while breaking and entering, but at this point, the viewers of the “Unveil the Night” YouTube series—and there were so very many—were probably used to it.  Shiro deepened the kiss, tilting his head, lingering against Keith’s willing mouth.  A moan sounded, and Shiro wasn’t really sure who it had come from, but he lifted a hand to cup Keith’s face.

Because really, making out in the husk of a burned, occult-infamous house while trespassing was basically their trademark by now.

_Crack._

The two of them yanked away from each other with soft gasps.  An exchanged, wide-eyed glance told Shiro that he hadn’t been the only one who had heard it.

“EMF reader,” he hissed quietly, but Keith was already on it.  Pulling out the small device, he held it out.  Nothing, not yet, but—

_Thump._

The noise sounded from the opposite side of the house.  Shiro had to admit that the first sight of the Boleskine House had been underwhelming: small and deceptively ordinary-looking, minus the chunk of real estate missing from the fire.  Not even a second story.  But now, he had to admit that if the house had been any bigger, this would have been ten times more terrifying.

“This way,” Keith breathed, apparently fearless, and Shiro’s heart did a backflip.  People always seemed to think Shiro was the brave one; maybe it was his size?  But no, it was Keith.  It had always been Keith, fierce and beautiful, charging ahead to the next challenge.          

Stealthily, this time, at least.  No need to have a repeat of that instance that time in Pennsylvania.  Keith peered around corners before turning them as the noises began to grow steadier and louder.  Shiro crept along behind him, the dark and dust pressing in.  The place still smelled faintly of smoke and burned wood, and out of the corner of his eye, shadows seemed to move faintly.

Shiro held his breath as they reached a dark hallway, and this time, the thumping seemed to come from the opposite end.  Shiro thought he remembered coming through it, but it was far more ominous than when they had first—

A terrified scream cracked through the silence of the night, and the bottom dropped out of Shiro’s world.

With a roar of his own, he slung both arms around Keith’s waist, dropping the camera and dragging him to the ground, curling over Keith’s body protectively.  The scream, he could now tell, _was_ coming from Keith, but not just from him, either, with wails sounding from what seemed like all sides.  Shiro tensed, frantically trying to think of an escape route—

“Holy _shit_ , dude!”

The voice, high-pitched and terrified, was _certainly_ not that of a ghost.  Moreover, it sounded vaguely… familiar?

Deciding to risk it, he slowly peered upward.

Two terrified faces, one thin and one round, stared back at them.  Jaws slack with horror, yes, but decidedly flesh and blood.

“You…” Shiro croaked.  “You’re the guys from…”

The narrow-faced one seemed to brighten immediately, all traces of fear vanishing at the promise of recognition.  He climbed out of the other one’s arms where he had been swiftly scooped up (or jumped up; Shiro had missed that part) and offered Shiro a charming grin.

“Well!  If you had just said you were a fan, we would’ve tried harder not to scare you!  Yeah, I’m Lance, from the famous ghost hunting series ‘Smells Like Teen Spirits,’ and this is Hunk”—he motioned at his larger companion, who was still shaking—“and Pidge.”

“I don’t think he needs an introduction, Lance,” Pidge drawled, her voice the only one not shaking.  When Shiro peered at her, he realized she was still filming.  “Take a closer look.”

Lance frowned, leaning in and inspecting Shiro’s face, taking it in: the scar, the shock of white hair…

“Holy _fuck!_ ” he yelped, leaping back, arms windmilling, sending Hunk jumping what had to be two feet into the air.  “You’re _Shiro!_  From ‘Unveil the Night’—oh my god!  So that must mean…”  He looked around frantically.  “…Where’s Keith?”

“Right _here!_ ” came the irate, muffled noise from underneath Shiro.  He jumped, then realized that his boyfriend… had been struggling for several minutes, actually.  Oops.

“Sorry, sorry!”  Shiro leaped to his feet and scrambled away from Keith, who rose to his feet like a very angry cat.

Keith took in the company, then turned back to Shiro.  “Seriously?”

“Hey, hey!”  Lance bounced up and down on his toes.  “You wanna team up?  We can do a crossover special!  C’mere, Pidge!”  He waved at her, then slung his arms around Shiro and Keith both.  Well, tried to sling his arm around Keith—he got approximately as far as nearly touching before a many-daggered glare sent him slinking back to Shiro.

“We haven’t found anything anyway,” Keith snapped crossly, but Shiro shrugged.

“It isn’t a very big house, though…”

At Keith’s betrayed look, Shiro just grinned.

—

“I _told_ them they weren’t gonna find anything,” Keith grumbled as they trudged down through the graveyard.  The faint light of dawn was just beginning to peek out from behind them.  “But no.  ‘It’ll be fun,’ you said.  And then spent the night—something I have _never_ wanted to do, for the record—with Lance Espinoza.”

“And the other two,” Shiro laughed.

“Yeah, but they didn’t mentally _scar me for life._ ”

Shiro just reached out to wrap his arms around Keith, nuzzling into his hair.  The loch lay in front of them, and Shiro couldn’t wait to see what it looked like under the sunrise.

“You enjoyed yourself.  Don’t lie.”

The muttering from underneath his mouth told him that Keith had, and very much.

“And now, we get to watch the sunrise, over this beautiful loch, one of the most famous places in the world.”

“Yeah, but only after putting up with—”

“Keith.”

“Hey, listen, that lasted for hours—”

“ _Keith!_ ”

At the urgency in Shiro’s voice, Keith looked up.  Shiro felt him still within his arms as he saw what Shiro had.

A long, sinuous form slid through the water, multiple arcs of what were clearly the same body cresting the surface as it made its way across the loch.

“No way,” Keith breathed, at the same time Shiro said, “Oh my god.”

They stayed still for a moment more, then Keith whirled.  “Camera!  Camera camera, get the camera!”

Shiro fumbled at the camera strapped around his wrist, flipping out the viewscreen, then froze, a sinking sensation in his gut.

“I broke it,” he said quietly.  “When they scared us.  I dropped it, and it won’t turn on…”

“No, no, no!”  Keith grabbed for it, but despite his frantic mashing of buttons, it remained dark.  The prepaid cell phone they had bought while traveling might as well have been made from stone age technology; it didn’t even have a still camera.  Keith slumped, and Shiro extended an arm to wrap around his waist.

Keith leaned into him, and the both of them watched the creature slide through the water for several more moments before vanishing into the depths of Loch Ness, dragging the momentary dreams of fame and fortune and renown down with it.

They stayed silent for several more moments, awe winning out over disappointment.

“I think,” Shiro said quietly, “that this was still the best anniversary we’ve ever had.”

Keith, after a moment, pressed closer, and Shiro could hear the smile in his voice as he said, “Yeah.  Agreed.”


End file.
